Friday, October 18, 2013

Window on Eurasia: Sochi Countdown – 16 Weeks to the Olympiad in the North Caucasus

Note:This is my 34th special Window on
Eurasia about the meaning and impact of the planned Olympiad on the nations in
the surrounding region.These WOEs,
which will appear each Friday over the coming year, will not aim at being
comprehensive but rather will consist of a series bullet points about such
developments.I would like to invite
anyone with special knowledge or information about this subject to send me
references to the materials involved.My
email address is Paul.Goble@gmal.com

US Said Planning
to Use ‘Climate Weapon’ to Keep Sochi Too Warm for Winter Games.Two Russian intelligence officials say that
the United States is planning to unleash a climate weapon to keep the weather
in Sochi far above freezing and thus embarrass Russia. The story suggests that
Moscow is looking for someone to blame if, as some meteorologists predict, the
Winter Olympics in the subtropoics proves to be too warm for sports that
require snow and ice (argumenti.ru/toptheme/n410/291408).

Sochi Organizers
Already Have 30,000 Cubic Meters of Snow in Freezers.To ensure that there will be enough snow at
Olympic venues, Sochi Games officials say they have already put 30,000 cubic
meters of snow from last year and will make and put in 420,000 cubic meters
more before the games begin (kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/231780/).

22 Terrorist
Actions in North Caucasus during the Last Year.Kavkaz-Uzel.ru, a news service that covers
developments in the North Caucasus, says that there have been 22 terrorist
incidents in the region over the last 12 months.It updates this chronology on a monthly basis
(kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/220120/).

Storms Show
Sochi Must Prepare for Natural Disasters, Officials Say.The recent storms and resulting flooding show
that “Sochi must be prepared” for such disasters, according to emergency
situation officias meeting in Krasnodar.By the time of the games, there will be 1500 emergency services workers
there backe up by 24,500 MVD troops and 10,000 other internal troops, officials
said (kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/231642/
and

Kozak Says
Everything Will Be Ready in Time … Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak says
that work on Olympic facilities is “practically completed” and will certainly
be doneon time. “Russians can be
certain that everything with us is going according to plan” and that there will
not be lines in February of the kind that visitors to Sochi now face (itar-tass.com/c534/910959.html).

… But Pictures
Suggest a Different Conclusion. But pictures taken by residents and
visitors suggest a very different conclusion. Buildings and roads are in many
cases far from finished, and in some cases, there has been no progress for
months.In the words of Blogsochi.ru,
there is only one possible conclusion: those who promise that things will be
ready will “not be able to deliver” (blogsochi.ru/content/ne-uspeyutand blogsochi.ru/content/krasnaya-polyana-12102013).

Most LGBTs in
Russia Have Suffered Because of Their Orientation.A new poll of more than 2,000 LGBT community
members in Russia found that 53 percent had suffered psychological pressure, 15
percent physical violence, and 38 percent discrimination in the workplace.Those ho conducted it said that “the
violation of human right and discrimination against the LGBTs iin this year has
born a systematic and all-sided character. There is not one sphere of life in
Russian society in which LGBTs have not been subject to discrimination.”
Moreover, it found that only one LGBT in 20 has any trust in Russian law
enforcement and that almost half – 45 percent – would “not in any
circumstances” seek help from the police if they were attacked (rosbalt.ru/main/2013/10/15/1188131.html).

USOC Adds Ban on
Discrimination on Basis of Sexual Orientation to Its Charter But Won’t Press
Russia.The United States Olympic Committee voted to
add “sexual orientation” to its non-discrimination policy but said that it won’t
press Russia on this issue before Sochi. “The fact that we do not think it is
our role to advocate for a change in the Russian law does not mean that we
support the law, and we do not,” said USOC chief executive officer Scott
Blackmun. The USOC expressed the hope that the IOC would update its charter in
the near future (thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/u-s-olympic-committee-adds-sexual-orientation-to-its-code-of-conduct/news/2013/10/14/76835#.Ul6OrhBcUUN).

Passing of
Olympic Torch Empties Russian Streets Rather than Fills Them.Russian officials have asked local businesses
and schools to close on the day the Olympic torch passes through their cities
and villages in order to allow people to watch its passing. But with few
exceptions, most people have not done so but used the day off to attend to
their own needs (chaskor.ru/article/estafeta_olimpijskogo_ognya_tula_33882).

Russia’s
Federation Council Calls for Cyber Defense at Sochi. Members of the
upper house of the Russian parliament have called for the establishment of a
cyber defense center to ward off possible hacker attacks, and they have urged
recruiting “white hackers” to test the defenses of the city’s electronic
infrastructure before the games (itar-tasskuban.ru/news/article?type=city2014&i=48906
and kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/231848/).

Olympic Mounted
Police to Wear Jodhpurs. The mounted police who will be in evidence during
the Sochi Games will be especially noticeable because they will be wearing
jodhpurs, officials say (polit.ru/news/2013/10/17/galliffet/).

Ecologists, Party Activists to Stage Protest in Moscow over
Sochi’s Degradation. Roman Shikarev, a lawyer, says
that human rights activists, environmental activists and representatives of
Yabloko will be protesting in front of the main government building in Moscow
October 18 to call attention to the ways in which Sochi has been transformed
froma resort to an ecological catastrophe.Organizers say that it is “possible”
Moscow officials have not heard about the problems with trash and damage from
construction in the southern Russian city (kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/231849/).

State Budgets Too Small Even to Record
Environmental Destruction in Parks Near Sochi. Ecological Watch on the
North Caucasus says that “neither the national park nor the administration of
Krasnodark kray hs money for putting in order the land use documentation” that
is essential to track species of plants and animals that are being put at risk
or even threatened with extinction because of Olympic construction in areas
which are supposed to be protected by law (ewnc.org/node/12904).

Kozak Promises
Circassians Their Culture Will Be Represented at Sochi…During a visit by 50 Circassian leaders from
abroad organized by the Russian government, Russian Deputy Prime Minister
Dmitry Kozak promises that Circassian elements will be “broadly represented” in
the cultural program of the Sochi Olympics, a pledge that was welcomed by many
of them (kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/231844/).

… But Meetings
Highlight Continuing Circassion Opposition to the Games as Such.A meeting between the 50 Circassians on the
government-organized tour with Naim Neflayshev, a senior scholar at the Center
for Civilizational and Regional Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences,
called attention to opposition among Circassians to the Sochi Olympid.He told them that “the majority of Circassian
organizations” in the North Caucasus support the games but acknowledged that
three – the Circaassian Congress of Adygeya, the Circassian Congress of
Kaardino-Balkaria, and the Circassian Congress of Karachayevo-Cherkessia – remin
opposed, argying that the Olympiad must not be conducted where a genocide was
conducted against their nation at the end of the Caucasus war (kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/231844/).
Consequently, despite much media ballyhoo, it seems unlikely that this latest
effort by Moscow at neutralizing Circassian opinion has worked as intended (http://avrom-caucasus.livejournal.com/310997.html)

Circassians in
Middle East and Europe Repeat Calls for Boycott.Circassian organizations in Jordan and Europe
have repeated their calls to the International Olympic Committee to live up to
its charter and not hold the games in Sochi, the site of the 1864 genocide of
the Circassian nation.“We would like to make it clear that the Circassian people
lost more than a million souls over a hundred years in defense of their
historical territory, and several Circassian tribes became extinct like the
tribes of Mequash, Natuhay, Zhaney and Ubyh, plus the displacement and
expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Circassians to the Ottoman Empire through
the port city of Sochi in particular” (natpress.ru/index.php?newsid=8430,
facebook.com/groups/antisochi/permalink/609948792381202/
and facebook.com/groups/antisochi/permalink/609998129042935/).

Sochi Games have
Raised the Profile of the Circassians, Analyst Says.“The ‘Circassian question’ has acquired
importance before the Olympiad in Sochi,” allowing Circassian groups to raise a
variety of issues of concern to them, according to a Vestikavkaa.ru
commentator.But “it is obvious that
after the 2014 Games, this theme will tosignificant degree lose its importance” and the task of the Circassians
in the future will be that much more difficult (vestikavkaza.ru/articles/CHerkesskie-prioritety.html).

Pussy Riot Group
Calls for Boycotting Sochi.Saying that
Russia’s anti-gay laws are intolerable,Yekaterina Samutsevich of the Pussy Riot
activist group, told Britain’s “Independent” newspaper tht “the Olympiad could
have become a source of national pride but tht now what is taking place can
only be called right-wing fascism” and therefore should be boycotted by all (kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/231842/).

Actress
Sigourney Weaver Calls for Gay Protests at Sochi Games.Sigourney Weaver says that she is against
boycotting the Sochi games because of all the athletes who have trained so hard
to compete but believes that the Olympiad is “an excellent opportunity to make
it clear how the world thinks” about Russia’s anti-gay laws.The Olympics could be “a great way for some,
without trying to be shocking but trying to be exuberant, to show the world
what it means to be gay: How can you resist that?” (www.ontopmag.com/article.aspx?id=16701&MediaType=1&Category=22).

10,000 Sochi
Service Personnel to Receive Intensify Instruction in English.To handle the influx of visitors who do
not speak Russian, Sochi organizers have organized special English-language
courses for 10,000 people who will be working in service and support facilities
(kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/231790/).

Not Yet ‘Revolutionaries’
But Sochi Residents are Angry.Sochi residents have adopted an increasingly revolutionary tone in their
discussion of plans for a meeting on October 19 to condemn the actions of city
officials who have not protected them from the ravages of Olympic
construction.Indeed, their anger is now
so great that organiers have told them to leave their signs and weapons at home
and to not do anything that could be an excuse for the police to move against
them (blogsochi.ru/content/revolyutsiya-net-poka-tolko-miting). The
residents of Kudepsta are so upset that they have decided to take things into
their own hands and clean up the region because they do not believe that
officials are going to pay any attention to their complaints (blogsochi.ru/content/kudepsta-ustala-ot-beskonechnogo-vranya-vlastei).
And Sochi residents are also upset by the requirement imposed by Olympic
organizers that they willhave to carry
out most of their business during nighttime hours rather than during the normal
business day (sochi-24.ru/obshestvo/zhizn-sochi-perejdet-v-nochnoj-rezhim.20131011.69084.html).

Sochi Mayor
Being Investigated by Moscow and Krasnodar Kray.Sochi Mayor Anatoly Pakhomov, who local
residents say is both corrupt and insensitive to their concerns, is now being
investigated by the Moscow and Krasnodar procuracies. The two have raided his
offices and confiscated documents. No arrests have been made, but some in the
city expect him to be sacrificed in order to put Moscow in a better light (blogsochi.ru/content/komu-grozit-nebo-v-kletochku).

Only Way to
‘Save’ Sochi Games is for Russian Officials to Stay Away. Commentator
Says. Oleg Kozyrev says the only way to “save the Olympiad” is for Russian
officials of all levels, up to and including President Vladimir Putin, to stay
away from or at the very least remain in the background and let the athletes
put on the show.If that happens,
Russians can still be proud of the competition; if not, many of them will be
ashamed (svpressa.ru/blogs/article/75793/).

Muslims in Sochi Mark Kurban Bayram in
the Olympic Park.Lacking the
facilities to pray inside, hundreds of Muslims, both natives and gastarbeiters,
assembled in a grassy area in the Olympic Park for prayers on Kurban Bayram. In
contrast to other Russian cities, there were no reports of clashes with
non-Muslis (blogsochi.ru/content/kurban-bairam-v-sochi).

Russian
Nationalists in Krasnodar Want Independent Druzhinniki; Officials Hope to
Control Such Units.Russian
nationalist groups want to establish their own druzhinniki units to patrol the
kray, but MVD officials want these units to be part of the police system and
thus at least nominally under the control of the government.It appears that both groups are having some
success in their pursuit of their different goals, and it remains uncertain
which will come out on top (sochinskie-novosti.com/2013/10/15/).

Chechnya to
Spent 15 Million Rubles on Olympic Torch Run in Republic.Grozny has announced that it will spend 15
million rubles (500,000 US dollars) to spruce up the route that the Olympic
torch will pass through Chechnya and for other activities associated with that
action (kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/231508/).

Russian Olympic
Team Official Says She Hasn’t Set Medal Quota. Media reports to
the contrary, Svetlanda Gladysheva, president of the Russian skiing and
snowboarding federation, said that she has no plans to set a medal quota for
Russian competitors.“I very much want
the gold of these Games, but I do not know who it will be and in what
discipline.” She added, “I have my own medal plan in my heart, but I’m not
going to announce it” (sochi2014.rsport.ru/sochi2014_alpine/20131015/693904648.html).

Cossacks Arrive
in Sochi to Enforce Immigration Laws.A group of Cossack druzhinniki have arrived in Sochi to help police
enforce laws against illegal gastarbeiters (sochinskie-novosti.com/2013/10/14/).

Sochi Port
Hasn’t Been as Busy as Planned.Olimpstroy had planned for the Sochi port to process more than 14
million tons of cargo between 2010 and 2013, but so far it has handled only “a
little more than three million tons,” a shortfall that has meant that the
construction group has not earned the money it had counted on to pay back loans
to Moscow banks (kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/231666/).

Medvedev Urges
Better Support for Sochi Investors. Responding to complaints from some
oligarchs that they have not been compensated for their work on the Olympiad,
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has called on his government to develop
a program to ensure that they are (kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/231637/).

Two Elkin
Cartoons Make Fun of Russia’s Olympic Torch Problems. Two cartoons by
Russia’s Elkin make fun of the Olympic torch run in Russia. One, calling
attention to the fact that the torch keeps going out, shows a gas station
attendant filling up the torch. Another, reflecting ethnic clashes in many
parts of the country, shows a torch runner being surrounded by others carrying
torches that clearly are going to be used not for the Olympics but to guide
attacks on minorities (polit.ru/gallery/elkin/).

Sewage Spilling
Out into Sochi Street.Because of problems with re-routing water and
sewer lines, human waste has been spilling out into a major Sochi street,
something passers by have noticed because of its “specific smell” (blogsochi.ru/content/zharkie-zimnie-tvoi-0).

Many More
Russians May Get Pardons in Advance of Games.Moscow’s
“Nezavisimaya gazeta” says that the biggest winners from the Sochi Olympics may
be those in Russian prisons and camps, including political cases like Pussy
Riot, Yukos, and the Bolotnoye affairs. President Vladimir Putin may increase
the number of pardons to attract positive attention to himself in the run-up to
the Olympiad (ng.ru/politics/2013-10-14/3_olimpiada.html).

Western Leaders
Must Not Give Putin a Victory by Coming to Sochi, Kara-Murza Says.Commentator Vladimir Kara-Murza says that the
West cannot do much to help Russia move toward democracy but that it “must not
interfere.”And to avoid doing that, he
says, Western leaders must not in any case give Russian President Vladimir
Putin a victory by attending his pocket Olympics in Sochi (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=52565DBE507C5).

New Book Details
Sochi Games Problems.A new book, edited by Bo Petersson and Karina
Vamling, “The Sochi Predicament: Contexts, Characteristics and Challenges of
the Olympic Winter Games in 2014” (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013) has now
been released (mah.se/sochi2014).

German
Demonstrators Call for Boycott of Sochi Games. A demonstration in front of Berlin’s
Reichschancellry called for Germany and other Western governments to boycott
the Sochi Olympiad to protest Moscow’s increasingly repressive policies (orly74.livejournal.com/321112.html).

Russian
Ecologist who Fled to Ukraine Says Sochi Preparations Inadequate.Sergey Volkov, who earlier served as a
consultant for the Games but fled to Ukraine after his comments infuriated
Moscow, said on the BBC that Moscow has neither protected the environment
around Sochi as Olympic rules require or taken steps to ensure that there will
not be natural disasters such as mudslides or building collapses during the
games (aboutru.com/2013/10/olimpiada/).

Olympic Torch Continues
to Go Out.The Olympic torch continues to flame out as
runners carry it through the Russian Federation.As a result, Nakanune.ru says, people along
the route are now carrying matches to help relight it if that happens (nakanune.ru/news/2013/10/11/22327097/).

Sochi Police
Deny Raiding Yabloko Office. In a case of “who are you going to believe, us
or your own eyes?” Sochi police say they did not raid the kray offices of the
Yabloko party despite the posting online of pictures showing that they had (sochinskie-novosti.com/2013/10/10/).

Trash Heap Near
Sochi Likely to Poison City’s Water Supply.An illegal dump of waste at Akhshtyr is likely to poison the citys water
supply because the pile of debris contains both heavy metals and other wastes
that are likely to be carried into the aquifer by rain, ecologists warn (www.sochinskie-novosti.com/ ).

MSNBC’s Maddow
Breaks with Parent Company on Sochi.Rachel Maddow denounced on her program Russia’s anti-LGBT laws,
beginning the segment with a picture of one of the times when the Olympic torch
went out on its journey out of Moscow.Journalists wondered how NBC, MSNBC’s parent company, will handle this
given that it has paid 775 million US dollars for television rights to the
Sochi games and 3.6 billion US dollars for subsequent Olympiads (news.gnom.es/news/maddow-breaks-with-nbc-what-are-we-saying-by-not-boycotting-sochi-olympics).

Russian Orthodox
Church Says Olympic Flame has No Sacred Meaning.Responding to the complaints of some Russians
that the Olympic ceremony and flame are pagan, Vladimir Legoyda, head of the
Patriarchate’s information department, says that these things are “simply a
spectacle” with no spiritual meaning (rus-obr.ru/ru-web/26855).

Boycotts Used to
Reflect Geopolitical Struggles; Now, They’re about Gay Rights, Frolov Says. Russian
commentator Vladimir Frolov says that a generation ago, Olympic boycotts were about
things like Afghanistan, but now “the arena of the sharpest clash of
civilizations has become the theme of single-sex love” (newizv.ru/sport/2013-10-11/190525-politika-snova-v-igre.html).

Athlete Ally,
All Out Launch ‘Principle Six’ Campaign.Athlete Ally and All Out have launched a campaign named after the sixth
provision of the Olympic Charter banning discrimination and have received
declarations of support from 15 US Olympians.The groups say that the symbol and syllables P6, which could be worn as
a sticker or woven into clothing could become something like the Livestrong
bracelet, “a ubiquitous motif that doesn’t spell out a whole philosophy but has
an unmistakable meaning and message” (olympictalk.nbcsports.com/2013/10/11/athlete-ally-gay-right-sochi-olympics/).